Well would you look at that, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals are featured on NBC Sports Network on Wednesday Night.

It’s been a weird start first half of the season for both of these teams, but in different ways.

Let’s start with the Capitals. They won the Stanley Cup in June, lost their head coach to a divisional rival but, surprisingly, kept almost their entire core. Washington leads the division with a 20-9-3 record. The Caps have won five in a row and eight out of 10.

The Penguins have been up and down in the first three months of the season. They’ve dealt with a slew of injuries, mediocre goaltending and inconsistent play. Still, Pittsburgh is lurking in a weak division and its peripheral statistics suggest better days lay ahead.